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Home › Forums › Summer Institutes › Crossing Boundaries in East Asia, Summer 2020 › Session 1 (July 27) - Jennifer Jung-Kim, UCLA
Cindy Nguyen.
Mike HagiwaraThe last few years have seen a great Korean cultural awakening to the world. As both Professor Jung-Kim and the reading, The Korean Wave, allude to, Psy's Gangnam Style, became one of the top music videos of the decade. Korean music has invited the world to get a glimpse of what Korean culture is like. However, as the article mentions, this can be seen as a double-edged sword. The "soft power" of Korean music, food, culture, etc. cannot alone catapult Korea onto the world's main stage; there must be a balance between the soft power and the hard power (economy, military, and communications infrastructure) in order to convey a complete Korea. In the classroom, over the past five or so years, it has been interesting to see the progression of Korean popularity among my middle school students, starting essentially with Psy's music video-that year everyone was dancing to the song and I even made sure to include the actual music video during our school dances! Students began to research different bands/groups, look into different elements of Korean culture/food, and even began to teach themselves the Korean language. Being half Japanese and half Korean, I always felt that people "understood" or embraced Japanese culture more because of anime, manga, and Japanese cuisine; however, this Korean wave has given me optimism that this isn't just a temperory wave, but rather a complete inclusion and acceptance of Korea as a whole into our modern-day society. If you don't believe me, just open up Netflix and look at all the Korean shows and movies!
Mike HagiwaraGood morning Natalie,
I totally get this! I lived in Japan from 2003-2006 and I remember how BIG Winter Sonata was at the time. I would go into a music/video rental store and all I would see is wall-to-wall rentals of the drama, as well as cut outs of Bae Young Joon. People I worked with at the time (middle-aged Japanese women), as well as my neighbors of the same demographic could be heard talking about the previous episode and I remember thinking, "What is this all about?" However, in retrospect, I also think it was a great leap forward when it comes to Japanese-Korean relations. Japan and Korea have always had conflict regarding something or another, and it was definitely nice to see/hear about something that brought the two countries closer together.
Mike HagiwaraThis post may be a bit outside the scope of the topic but after posting my last comment about how the "Korean Wave," and particularly Winter Sonata brought closer relations between Japan and Korea, I saw this news about South Korea installing a new artpiece about Korean comfort women at a private garden. It'll definitely be interesting how this plays out-the link to the story is below:
Mike HagiwaraI agree Sandra-the article definitely does incorporate both the pros and cons of Korea's reliance on "soft power." I like to think that, since the writing of this article, that Korea's status has substantially grown too. In the last decade we've definitely seen a growth in Korea's economic influence here in the United States. We've seen numerous Korean electronics manufacturers introduce amazing televisions, phones, and other devices while Kia Motors, once seen as a joke, is now unable to even keep up with demand for their amazing Kia model, the Telluride.
Sandra GarciaHey Shane,
I love how you are planning to incorporate this topic into your classroom. I am planning to do something similar. However, as a history teacher that never has enough time to cover everything assigned on her curriculum, I am bit worried on the aspect of time. I am glad you have a little more freedom in this sense. I will still attempt to do so because I strongly believe that as educators we must make our content pertinent to student's lives, but I will not be able to dedicate as much attention to this specific topic as I would like. Wishing you a successful learning activity.
Sandra GarciaHello Alma,
To be honest, I am glad to know that I was not the only person in the group who knew nothing about K-Pop, and the crazy part is- though I sang and danced the Gangnam Style song, I didn't know either that the artist was Korean.
While engaging with the readings, and during our class discussion on Monday, I felt completely out of the loop and a little embarrased for my then obvious ignorance of the topic. But I am super glad to discover why so many kids and adults alike are into K-Pop and how I can use it as a tool in my classroom! I loved your ideas about incorporating this in your math class!
Sandra GarciaTopics like K-Pop are exactly the reason why I attend this type of educator seminars in the first place. Everything discussed both in the readings and lectures was pretty much new to me. I have heard of the concept of K-Pop, but I would have never imagined how powerful and influential it actually is. Which is more, (I am going to reveal my ignorance here), I had never heard of the term “soft power” either. It was fascinating to read and to understand it multiple spheres of influence- and of course its limits.
The idea of Hallyu was also eye opening. As a world history and language teacher, I want to do some research to see how other cultures manage this concept or what if any, do they even call it. I also need to plan how to harness it power, to encourage my students to learn more about the cultures we study in the classroom. Past beyond the concepts of drama/K-pop, games, food, and fashion, into culture, language, and history.
Lastly, I want to say that I found fascinating the conversations about Black Lives Matter movements, female liberation/Escape the Corset movement, and the injustices of rich corporations reaping most of the economic benefits of the hard work of these groups. All of these are topics that are vital and timely, and I cannot wait to discuss them with my students and with other educators.
Brigid SchmidtHi Megan, being from the Midwest as well, I didn't notice that many Korean influences growing up. However, when I went to undergrad at The University of Michigan, I had a Korean roommate and there were many students who came from Korea to study at UofM. I started to see more Korean culture around me. Then, when I started teaching in Orange County, I tutored many Korean students. The families were so welcoming to me and always cooked traditional Korean foods for me to try. I found this so rewarding to learn about the culture directly from families who lived in Korea. Now in LA, I have many students who are Korean and from other areas of the world too. K-pop music, certain books, and shows are talked about often. It is easy to see the Korean wave at my school. I think it is wonderful to see my students sharing their backgrounds and cultures. Allowing my students the opportunity to choose their own novels gives them the chance to learn about other cultures through stories. I will continue to find more novels by Korea authors to encourage my students to branch out to new writing styles and ideas.
Cindy NguyenI was fortunate enough to be exposed to Korean culture early on. Growing up, some of my best friends were Korean so I was greatly influenced by their likes and interests. In middle school, we would spend hours watching Korean drama and listening to K-Pop music. (The Bodyguard was my very first Korean drama and Solid was the hottest Korean band in the 90s) On many weekends, we would take bus rides to KoreaTown in Los Angeles, CA to spend hours shopping, eating, and singing at karaoke studios. I was so young and naive that I believed everyone had the same exposure to Korean culture as I did. It didn't dawn on me until I moved to Westminster, CA in the 90s that I was only a handful of Vietnamese people who knew about Korean culture. Among my non-Korean friends, I would say Secret Garden and Boys Over Flowers were the Korean dramas that opened the flood gates to Hallyu. From that point on, it seemed like almost everyone in Orange County had Korean fever.
Cindy NguyenThank you for bringing this to light Mike. I would like to include the history of Korean Comfort Women in my unit lesson plans on Korea. Korean drama and music is a great ice breaker to create interest and grab the attention of the students. I would create a Kahoot game to test the knowledge of popular Korean culture with my students and then we would dive into the history. Once the students are familiar with the background, I would then introduce the subject of Japanese occupation (1932-1945) and Korean Comfort Women and how this was one method the Japanese used to degrade and humiliate their victims.
Brigid SchmidtLike some of the people who commented above, I was not familiar with the term soft power prior to Professor Jung-Kim's lecture and readings. Deborah makes good points that Korea is ranks high in many areas for being a medium sized country. A few years ago I was fortunate to be able to visit Korea and judging by the size and congestion of Seoul, it is hard to tell that Korea isn't a larger country. Seoul was like New York City with its skyscrapers, many restaurants, crowded streets, and bustling night life. Prior to this trip, I didn't realize how many influences Korean culture had in my own life (the food I love, my electronics, my car!) I think it would be an interesting project to have my students choose 5 of their favorite products and research where they are made, their origins, and information about their consumers.
Cervantes LeeAmazing people and economy of South Korea populated the Korea Pop culture globally now. Truly a world phenomenon in most measures. I am wondering what role did the Korea education system play for the growth of its Economy, soft power cultivation and now the Global K-Pop.
Rebecca BlankenshipEmily,
I love your suggestions. I am also interested in looking at Korean male beauty such as the flower boys versus Western ideals of masculinity. Here is an interesting article on that http://beyondhallyu.com/k-pop/just-pretty-face-long-little-known-history-korean-flower-boys/. Another interesting look is the impact of Flower Boys and Soft Masculinity in Korea https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42499809 Given the spread of Korean culture to the US. There is so much to discuss in including toxic masculinity and etc. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/05/9674149/kpop-male-singers-masculinity
Mike HagiwaraGreat post Alexis. I just wanted to respond to your post about the importance of introducing different cultures into the lives of our students through globalization. I think that the part in your post where you mention that your students are not "well-versed in other cultures" is not just an obstacle faced in a rural school community like yours. It can be found in any school community, even one in the big city where one would think that cultural diversity is the norm. I have taught in South Los Angeles for the past thirteen years and the area that surrounds the community is quite diverse- a ten/fiteen-minute drive will take you to Koreatown, Little Tokyo, and Silver Lake. Due to this central location I figured, at the start of my career, that most of the students would be more understanding and aware of diverse cultures. However, after the first few years I realized that many students had never left the bubble of their home communities. This surprised me because I wouldn't have imagined that my students would lack access to the diversity of Los Angeles. It was this realization that made me really want to incorporate my own culture into my classroom whenever possible. As educators it's our role to "globalize our students" through any means possible. You put it perfectly when you say that we have to show students that "we share culture among each other."
Maria CardenasI found this article that talks about comfort women and how they have brought awareness to what happened to them during the war. The fact that there are memorial sites in U.S. cities for them and the fact Japan isn't happy about them. I find it sad that Japan isn't recognizing the fact that "comfort Women" did take place in their history. The article states that Japan has removed that topic from their textbooks. They are different from Germany that recognize what Nazi Germany did. This will be my first year teaching 6 & 7th grade history so I believe the history framework talks about comfort women and we will have to teach about it (I live in California).
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/who-are-comfort-women-why-are-u-s-based-memorials-n997656
They also provided a curriculum and resources handbook if you guys want to take a look at it. (10th grade)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VkgU1GAPOnKwGvFJ3cW4YFDYzzvInnIf/view