Menu
close
Home › Forums › Summer Institutes › Exploring East Asian Visual Culture, Summer 2018 › Monday, 7/30, morning session - Suk-Young Kim, UCLA
Juana Evink.
Aileen LevelI know fairly little about North Korea, so I found the talk about its film industry to be the most interesting portion of today's sessions. Watching the clips helped to bring the lesson to life. Prior to this morning, images I've seen from North Korea have only included military parades, scenes of large group dances, and occasionally clips of North Korean news broadcasts. Today's material helps to give more depth to this view of the nation. It was also helpful to hear the professor's comments about what various North Koreans thought of the films at the time.
In terms of my classes, I suspect I would be most likely to use the "Lazy Pig" cartoon since its moral would be easy enough for 6th and 7th graders to identify. While North Korea is technically outside of my curriculum, it comes up several times each school year in terms of current events. These clips can help the students to understand more of what is happening there, beyond "crazy guy with nukes."
I tried to find the video on the Library of Congress site but couldn't locate it. Did anyone else have better luck searching their collection for the clips we saw? (I know that many of their materials can only be accessed in Washington, DC -- are these videos in that category?)
Aileen LevelHi, Donna. What grade level do you use the SHEG materials with? I love their lessons but find that the readings are almost always way above the reading level of my 6th and 7th grade students. If you're using them with younger students, do you adapt them?
Aileen LevelI looked on YouTube and found a version of "Twinkle" with both the Korean lyrics (in both alphabets so you can follow along) and also translated into English. It looks like a fan sub, so I can't comment on the quality of the translation, but it might be helpful for our classes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn_1EoYuWWg
Boyan ZhangHi Gerlinde,
Thank you for your comment and sharing your personal experiences growing up in Communist Romania. Talking about the propaganda movies I watched, I recall watching them when I was in elementary grades, around 10 years old. The characters were quite predictable, and it was very easy to tell who was on the good side, and who were the enemies. It was up until I was in high school that I realized that not all people or things had one side, and there could be different perspectives to one person and people's characters can change as well.
Jane ShenWhile watching the movies made in 70s made in North Korea, China, South Korea, and Japan, I noticed the common anti-American messages, however I also noticed the differences between N.Korean and Chinese vs. South Korean and Japanese.
In 60s, all these four countries were involved in the Korean war. N.Korean allies with China vs. American and South Korea and Japan. And after the war even until now, the America soldiers are residing in South Korea and Japan.
Due to this historical moment, in Chinese and NK movies, the anti-American messages were supported by both sides governments and presented as national hatres and anger. While in S.Korean and Japanse movies, the anti-American was not supported by their governments, and the movies tend to send the messages through some individual family stories to present themselves as the victim of the war, such as family seperations due to the military movements, tragedy lifes of the children born between the local woman and the American soldiers, and in Japan also there were many victms from the American atom bomb.
I don't think I would teach this content in my classroom since I am teaching Mandarin as a foreign language teacher, I am suppposed to teach the language and some Asian traditions and customs, not the history part. But definated with this knowlege I am ready to satiisfy my students' curiosity in their History learning.
Ruth HickmanHi Kim, yes I would totally assign students roles for each job description into groups of five to shoot a K-POP music video. For example, assign a Song Writer, Director, Camera, Editor, Creative Content Director.
Checkout this funny video students might enjoy:
Overview
Popular K-POP Music and Music Videos can be a part of a three-lesson unit designed to introduce students to the concept of popular culture and the role that it plays in their lives. In this lesson, students examine the importance of videos to the music industry and the role that music plays in popular culture. In pairs, students can interview each other about their musical preferences. This information is then tallied as a class.
Activities for this lesson include: viewing and listening to K-POP videos, with and without sound, in order to analyze aesthetic visual elements; exploring the history of the music video; and independent projects on music videos for K-POP musical genres.
Learning Outcomes
Students demonstrate:
an understanding of the importance of K-Pop videos to the music industry
an understanding of K-Pop music’s, Rock and R&B music's contribution to popular culture
As an example! xo
Donna JamshidnejadI teach high school and the readings are typically a little too easy so I often use the original documents instead of the modified ones. I did a PD with SHEG once and they taught us how to modify documents. They recommend taking the original and shortening it to around 200-500 words and selecting 2-3 words to define. For any other difficult words, we should simply modify the words and replace them with an easier synonym. The reason for this is that defining too many words for students makes it difficult for them to understand the document.
Jane ShenProfessor Dube,
Yes, the link is to the popular song with lyrics.
Here are another link from Selection of Unhasu Orchestra's concert Celebrating 2010.3.8 international women's day which was presented by the NK top singer Suh, Eun Hyang: https://youtu.be/5Q4-a8Uu37U ( Unhasu Orchestra is North Korean top government organization where the current first lady served as a singer as well. https://youtu.be/xsAUBG1KADM)
And the same song was used by Korean Chinese in YanBian, the Korean Autonomous Region located in the North East China, here is the link: https://youtu.be/yVxfMKW9Btc
Dacia GarzaI wasn't able to locate it either. If anyone finds the clip or movie please share with us.
Stella CastroToday’s session was quite informative about the arts in Asia, in the first part of the day we had the pleasure of having Mrs. Suk Young Kim as our guest speaker, she was awesome Mrs. Kim spoke of two main topics; North Korea Life through Cinema, and K-Pop.
Mrs. Kim spoke about how and why film is important in North Korea; this includes the novelty of the medium as being an effective tool. The easy distribution of, and that it is a highly controlled art form, with all that is involved in the making of a film, like the editing, the shooting , the planning and the final outcome, that being the film. Mrs. Kim spoke about how watching films in North Korea were not meant to be a form of entertainment, but rather as a ritual. That film has many roles such as for education, propaganda, and political roles. We were shown a couple short clips of films, some of which were funny, sad, as well as entertaining. Mrs. Kim also spoke about ho in the past there were no credits rolling up on the screen after a movie/film was shown, but that a Mr. Kim Jung -il a movie producer, (I believe), said that everyone working on a film should get/receive their credit for working on a film to which I agree. Mrs. Kim had many interesting things to say.
Mrs. Kim then went on to talk about the popularity of K-Pop, to which I was not aware of until some of my students mentioned it earlier this school year. Mrs. Kim said that it is unknown how long it will last but that more than likely it will not fade so soon. Mrs. Kim explained why there are so many people in a K-Pop group and that is that everyone has a certain job that they must fulfill. She also went on to explain that the companies that employ these K-pop bands are not fair to the workers and they do not treat them very well in regards to amenities pertaining to their contracts, such as having to pay for their own uniforms, make-up and other things associated with costumes and or their contracts. I learned that the K in K-pop stands for kaleidoscopic instead of Korea, which that was what I originally had thought. It was interesting to learn that if one is in a K-pop band/ group that their careers will be over as soon as they age into the 20-25 age range. It is interesting to learn this as most bands /groups do not do the age thing. The older they get the more experienced they are.
What I can teach my students from what I learned in this section of today’s lecture is how to make a mini-movie, with the instructions of thinking of a plot , the writing of a story, the plot, the acting, the editing, etc, In other words I can teach them the writing process. I can also teach them about felling and emotions, as this is what actors do. I can teach them about the right and wrongs and the rules we have to adhere to in our society to live, learn and be safe in our community.
Stella CastroA Mr. Michael Berry was our guest speaker I n the second part of today’s seminar. Interestingly enough, Mr. Berry is Mrs. Kim, (aforementioned), husband. I thought this to be really cool, as how often does one get to enjoy lectures from a husband/wife team. Mr. Berry spoke on the topic of Chinese Cinema. Mr. Berry also showed us a couple of movie clips, and/or movie trailers which were good to see. Mr. Berry went on to talk about famous writers/authors, and artists and the forms of art that they create. I found this topic and lecture quite interesting as some of the art forms Mr. Berry spoke about I had never heard of or imagined it could and would be done, much less here in the United States. For instance Mr. Berry spoke of “Performance art, where one artist and a either friend or colleague of Mr. Berry exercises, but that lasts the whole year, 365 days a year, (I forget if this type of Art form had a different name other than performance art.
Mr. Berry also spoke of comic books, and how comic nooks brought people together because in some of the small towns/ villages in Asia they all have or speak a different dialect. So if it there to be a traveling play, then many people would not understand it. But Art told in the comic book fashion people would and may be able to understand and comprehend the concept/s as the drawings. Facial expressions of the characters could be read just by looking at the pictures on the books.
Mr. Berry also mentioned to us that the next time we go see a movie to see who is making and producing these films, and that nowadays there are many Asian companies that are doing this. Mr. Berry also explained about Invisible Hollywood and vice versa, invisible Asia, and hoe the similarities exists, as in the premise of the movie, the backdrops, the costumes, the titles, and so on.
What I can teach my students from this session is that ART is a good form of creative expression/s, and that one should not feel bad if they are criticized for a piece of artwork that they have created. That it is important to learn to accept constructive criticism, and learn from that experience. instead of dwelling on some ill words in regards to their artwork. That there are many different types of art and that it comes in many different forms, whether it is drawings. paintings, sculpting, building or playing, (music), it is all good and there are many ways shapes and forms to accept and acknowledge, the many types of Art that exists. I can also teach them how to make a comic book and the folding of the piece of paper into 8 pages will also help them in developing and enhancing their fine motor skills.
Akunna UkaDaniel, I also found her frankness refreshing. It would be interestesting to challenge students to mention about in their daily life is from Korea (i.e. KPop, Korean BBQ, K Beauty) and encourage students to consider whether what they are exposed to is produced from common people (bottom up), produced from powerful corporate entitites (KPop), and/or supported by the government (KBeauty). This could be a quick exercise to get students to recognize how relevant Korea is to their own lives and that they might be interested in learning more.
Jacqueline MercadoI confess that prior to Professor Kim's presentation on Korean cinema I did not know much about Korean films nor that in Korea films were tightly controlled by the state regime and have traditionally been utilized as a didactic tool to teach the citizenry of an intended political message. It is interesting to note that films were used to indoctrinate children very early on and foster not individualism but loyalty to the state as we saw in the short clip of Lazy Pig. Knowing this historical fact will inform my teaching and presentation of Korean films in the classroom. With the knowlege that films were used as a teaching tool to teach particular values, to propogate a specific ideology and solidify power for a leader, a way to approach Korean films in the classroom is to study and examine the pedagogical value and usefulness of a movie by looking at the visuals--the images, symbols, content--themes and values presented, and the rhetoric used. As we learned in today's presentation, Korean films did evolve from its use as propaganda and began to reveal a softer dimension by presenting themes of personal love and agency and became more expressive of the individual rather than loyalty to a regime and the state. It would be interesting to find ways to show films that are reflective of this evolution so that students can see both aspects of Korean film.
Stella CastroCourtney, I too was amazed to learn that these K-Pop stars have as you call it “an expiration date”, no matter how popular they become or how great their success is. It would seem to make sense that if they are then successful they are the companies would care to keep them and their fans would remain loyal to them as their followers, (groupies), like with the bands in the U.S. and other countries, where the bands stay with their companies/labels, and bring in more money/revenue via concerts. But k pop bands do not do concerts. Unfortunately because these so called K-pop bands really just rely on the good looks of the performers, that is why they there magic number is up at 25, even as Ms. Kim stated, that is an old age for them. It is rare for a K-pop band to go past the age of 22. But in all reality, has anyone ever seen an ugly old looking 25 year old? No!, I didn’t think so. 25 is still just a baby as compared to the new aging phenomena. People nowadays are still looking and feeling good at the ripe ages of 60+, thanks to exercise and good healthy eating habits.
Stella CastroMidori, while I have never read “The Great Gatsby”, nor seen the movie, or know anything about this title, but I was compelled to respond to your statement making the comparisons between Gatsby about how, (I presume, Gatsby is the male character), he gives up (as you put it), his life, reputation, friendship and even chances of love for an unattainable woman, whereas the K-pop stars/performers also give up their lives, youth, health and social lives, to their companies , only to be put out to pasture, at a very young age, and as Ms. Kim mentioned, many times they have to pay back the companies for the clothes, make-up, costumes, that they used and acquired in their super stardom phase, all the while the record/recording companies were taking a big chunk/portion /percentage of their earnings. But who says life is fair, these K-pop performers are getting something out of it, something that they want. They are getting their 15 minutes of fame even if it is at a costly price to them.
Now I have to admit to myself that I would have to watch/read the Great Gatsby, as I know it is a classic, to actually be in the know of this classic.