Monday, 7/30, morning session - Suk-Young Kim, UCLA

[Anthony Pollard]

     Professor Kim gave us several adaptations about what the "K" in K-Pop could represent; and each of the representations are as amusing and entertaining as K-Pop itself.

     In addition to another colleague's experience with a student venturing to South Korea to parrticipate in K-Pop, I also have had a similar experience. Professor Kim mentioned children who particpate in K-Pop, usually will get a intensive education. The student I am referring passed their K-Pop "prime", and had moved on to a future to elevate their education. Concurring with Professor Kim, when this student arrived in school, this student was able to speak Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and English. A most amazing and extraordinary talent, highly desired by American employers.

     As a means to demonstrate to students to set life time goals, I can share the experience South Korean children have participatng in K-Pop.

[Dacia Garza]

I'd like to find a translated version of Lazy Dog to teach my students how to question a filmmaker's motive. I would encourage them to research the historical time period of the film in order to make connections about the relevance of an era and motive. Next students can explore an American cartoon of their choice and question the filmmaker's motive. Finally, they will blog about two things that are the same and one thing that is different about the Korean cartoon "Lazy Dog" and the American cartoon they researched.  

[Mayra Brady]

Thank you, Dr. Kim for the insight of North Korea's cinema.  I have never watched a Korean film before and you made it very interesting through your knowledge and passion you have for this subject.   I teach 6th grade Ancient History and I can definitely use the "Lazy Pig " film clip to teach the students different perspectives and point of views. I feel students should be exposed to different cultures and showing Dr. Kim's small film clips is a great way to let students compare Hollywood films to North and South Korea films.   

[Kim Leng]

This morning’s presentation on the North Korean film industry was amazing! I have not seen any of the films that Professor Kim mentioned, but will definitely want to take a look at some of them.  I’m curious about Flower Girl and Love, Love, My Love. In collaborating with a history teacher last school year, we mainly focused on students analyzing war propaganda posters.  I want to now include film as propaganda.  The brief clips that Professor Kim showed in class were engaging and I was educated in North Korea’s use of film as a way to distribute, educate, and legitimize Kim Jong-il as a leader to his people. 

[Gerlinde Goschi]

I enjoyed Dr. Suk-Young Kim's presentation today about North Korean films and her analysis of why film is important in North Korea?  The NK government took advantage of the novelty of the medium and efficiently marketed propaganda to the masses while controlling the content and philosophy of this art form.  I, especially, appreciated the animation film Lazy Pig (1969).  It was interesting to learn that the Soviets helped make a lot of children's animation in North Korea.  I would like to show this film to my class and ask the class to describe what it thinks about how this is different from what the students are used to seeing.  I expect this to lead to some interesting and stimulating discussion as well as great questions from students.

[Boyan Zhang]

The North Korean propaganda movies reminded me of the Chinese propaganda movies I watched when I was a child as I grew up in China in 1980s. I remember that I got used to identifying the "good character" and the "bad character" at the beginning of the movies and proud of myself being able to make the correct prediction because the characters were so predictable in the movies: phrasing the good and the politically correct, and denouncing the bad and politically incorrect. If I am going to talk about or show my students Chinese propaganda movies, I will probably try to compare Chinese propaganda movies with Korean propaganda movies, and talk about the functions of the movies to the societies back then. I will ask students to compare the propaganda movies to the movies that they watched in the United States, and how they like each type of movie. 

[Gerlinde Goschi]

This is really interesting.  I grew up in Communist Romania and we watched propaganda movies calling for loving the leader and his wife, learning to glorify both of them. I don't recall discussing the characters of these documentaries, but, as a child, I was mesmerized by them.  I am curious, in which grade did you partake in the discussion described above?

[Wen Shi]

Professor Kim's lecture was incredible and I learned quite a lot about the NK and SK.

Here are some ideas I would like to try in my classroom:

1 K-pop: I am inspired by the corporation of visual arts and pop music elements in K-pop The unit I am thinking is the unit about self identity where students learn about how to greet each other, introducing family members and community in Mandarin, etc. Students can start off creating the images representing themselves. Then they can work as a group to come up a conversation skit. The final project could be a musical video which they act out their skit in the form of k-pop with the lyrics in Mandarin as well as the images and video they select.

2 Perpective: I was inspired by how different western and NK portraied Kim Joung-il. By showing two clips of the video about the same event to the students after students finish their assigned reading materials. We can have a class discussion about what is history, who makes history.

The takeaway question:

Is there any kind of relations between North Korea political propganda movie and South Korea K-pop culture?

After being exposed to different generes of movies, how are north korean audience adapting to the situation that they would have to watch political propganda movies nowadays.

 

[Wen Shi]

I recall listening to a collection of stories called gold bell in kindergarten. The storeis are formated in a way that little kids could easily tell which is right or wrong, what should do or not do. Those stories are quite similar to the lazy pig. I think it's important to leave the moral to the child instead of telling them what should do or not to when it comes to a fictional stories becasue it is really about perspectives in the end. 

[Zoey McKinney]

Dr. Kim's presentation on K-Pop was interesting to me because my little sister is a huge K-Pop fan, and I have seen and heard bits and pieces of the culture from her. When Dr. Kim was discussing the treatment of the idols, where they are trained extensively, expected to be perfect, and "discarded" after a few years, reminded me of a news story my sister shared with me. In December, one of the members of SHINee, Kim Jong-hyun, committed suicide at the age of 27. At the time, I heard from a few people about what a big deal it was in the K-pop community, as it was completely unexpected. In his final note, he talked about the pressures of being in the spotlight, and it seems very likely that this fame contributed to his depression. Dr. Kim discussed the rise of K-Pop stars as exemplifying an alternative route to success, as opposed to the traditional idea of good college to stable job. In my own classroom my students are interested, not necessarily in K-Pop specifically, but in online celebrities on YouTube and musical.ly, which seem to be a continuation of that idea of success. I've had plenty of students say that they want to be YouTube stars when they grow up. While I agree that going to college and getting a degree is not the only path to success and shouldn't be presented as such, I think it's important that students are exposed to the realities of "stardom." Some students have the talent and determination to be successful in the entertainment industry, and I believe in valuing their skills and encouraging their creativity, but I want them to be aware of what they are getting themselves into. I believe that since Jong-hyun's death there has been more criticism of the K-Pop culture of perfection and pressure, but there is definitely room for improvement in that area.

[Gerlinde Goschi]

I enjoyed learning about the connection between K-pop music videos and YouTube and how K-pop embraced YouTube.  Dr. Suk-Young Kim explained it very well.  I found it interesting to see how K-pop needed a foreign market to grow and with its professional quality video facilitated more traffic on YouTube.  As Dr. Kim stated this "partnership was naturally forged."  Hence, music videos, the blue chips on YouTube equaled a high number of viewers due to its professional quality which ultimately equaled high-income revenue.  

 

[Kim Leng]

Ruth, this sounds like an engaging assignment.  Would you have students work in groups and assign them different roles...visual director, songwriter, etc? 

[Daniel Horowitz]

How completely bizarre the story is, that Kim Jong Il, future leader of North Korea was heavily involved in cinema, collecting an enormously large collection of film. We learned how he orchestrated the kidnapping of two of the hottest stars of S Korean cinema and forced them to make films. The last film Shin Sang Ok made with his wife Choi Eun Lee was a Godzilla knpck off called Pulgasari. The entire movie is available on Youtube, and apparantly this big monster joins forces with peasants to fight an evil dictator. How ironic.

[Jennifer Place]

I was probably the only person in the room that did not have prior knowledge about Kpop!  Consequently, I found it fascinating and at the same time very disturbing.  The first thing that occurs to me is that the entire genre is a lie, and therefore an opportunity to employ critical thinking and inquiry skills. 

I very much like the idea of having students compare two films that show two different perspectives of one historical event.  Point of view.  Whose truth is the 'real' truth? 

Professor Kim's lectures both provided evidence of Korean leaders intentions to be recognized globally, especially through film and social media.  I was surprised to learn that film has been used to educate young children.  My students will find that interesting in comparison to their own schooling. 

[Jess Meyer]

Honestly I had no idea that North Korea even had a film industry besides documentaries.  I have so many films to watch now!  I think the cartoons would be the most accessible to my students.  Taking a North Korean cartoon and comparing it to a WWII cartoon ("The Ducktators" from Warner Bros or “der Fuehrer’s Face,” from Disney) would let students analyze animation can be used as a tool for persuasion.

 

[Author]

Posts