Session 4 - August 6, Jennifer Jung-Kim, UCLA

[Monica Munguia]

The whole concept of beauty tied into self-esteem is prevalent in my middle school students.  I often observe my girls not asserting themselves because they do not want boys to think they are intelligent.  But yet, they are extreme in their attire.  My girls have always worn inappropriate clothes that does not become their body shapes simply to comply with popular trends.  In addition, my boys each year seem to be more concerned with their physicality.  They often have conversations on facial and hair products.  These gender concerns were both addressed by what is going on in South Korea.  My girls have no quarrels in changing their physicality, so the article of cosmetic surgery would open up discussions as to how far they would be willing to alter their looks.  Whereas my boys seem to be following more androgyny trends were they want a softer appearance to attract girls.  Both are trying to find and accept their sexuality, which is a passage of puberty.

 

[Monica Munguia]

When being exposed to the actions, sacrifices, and ratifications of the persons interviewed from Nanfu’s village, one cannot help but judge their decisions reflecting one’s own culture.  I agreed with the journalist that China’s propaganda was highly infiltrated into the people, and these people created their roles based on ignorance.  They were literally brained washed that their country needed this policy.  But, you could also sense their sadness when they spoke that they had no choice.  Whether they liked it or not, they had to comply, especially the women.  This is where I understood why Nanfu’s mother and aunt found themselves going against their beliefs.  As with my own mother after hearing her own story of regulations imposed first by her father and then my father, she had no choice but to deter her own dreams.  This gave me a greater understanding for these women but did not excuse them for what they did, especially when the woman helped the uncle leave his daughter out to die.  The only one who seemed to want to eliminate her guilt was the midwife.  I could not even relate or imagine how she felt after assisting with so many abortions only that she needed to make her wrongs into rights.

 

[Marcos Rico]

Professor Jennifer Jung-Kim lecture was eye opening, I was aware of the current tension between South Korea and Japan (https://news.google.com/articles/CAIiEK5phWANg3F5MrJDj3873IsqGQgEKhAIACoHCAow4uzwCjCF3bsCMIrOrwM?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen) but was not fully aware of how deep the conflict is. I always believed that South Korea’s most hated enemy was North Korea( it is more like an unresolved sibling fight), but in reality Japan is their most hated enemy. Their first national humiliation day was at the hands of the Japanese armed forces in 1910. 

[Anthony Pollard]

     Most students between the ages of 12-18 like K-Pop, and more recently J-Pop. Now, there is K-Beauty, which undefines gender, but allows for more freedom of expression (more excepted in America, than in most other places.)

[Zoey McKinney]

Professor Jung-Kim touched on K-Pop and how it reflects (or affects) standards of beauty. Like many of you, I have a lot of students (and a little sister) who are big fans of K-Pop. In fact, one of my students gave me this BTS poster as a gift, which I immediately thought of when Professor Jung-Kim mentioned "flower boys". I thought it was so interesting how feminine this poster was. The flower background is straight out of a romance novel, but the members of the group are not the masculine romance novel ideal. They are very "soft" and feminized, and display some of the androgyny that was discussed today. I think it is interesting how androgyny and gender non-conformity are also showing up in Western pop culture more often, and I wonder how much of that is due to the influence of East Asian pop culture. I'm also thinking about the intended audience of these K-Pop and K-drama androgynous celebrities. These products are definitely consumed mostly by women, probably young women and girls. I'm curious about music and film aimed at boys or men. Do those celebrities have the same soft look, or are they more traditionally masculine? 

[Gerlinde Goschi]

Thank you for sharing this story, Joy.  I have a lot of students from East Asia and I only recently understood how important image and appearances are.  I feel this is not so different here in the U.S. in certain areas.  Prof. Jung-Kim explained it so well today with many examples.  Plastic surgery has been associated with privilege and status in so many societies.  It is surprising to find out that South Korea is the world's leading country with the most amount of plastic surgeries.  I wonder if it is related with the South Korean economical  wealth as well?

[Gerlinde Goschi]

I had a South Korean student a few years ago when I taught fourth grade who did an early study abroad in the United States.  Her parents stayed in Seoul while she attended school in the Los Angeles area and lived with a goose family.  At the time I was somewhat appalled as I have children of my own and it would never occur to me to send them to study in a foreign country at the tender age of 10.  I became close to this student and I admired her devotion to the study of the English language, her courage, tenacity, and maturity.  I met both her mom and dad when they visited her (dad came only once because he was a busy doctor in Seoul who owned two clinics).  Prof. Jung explained in our session today that this is not that uncommon in South Korea.  I am still in touch with my student who now moved back to Seoul.  She is now in high school and plans to attend an American university soon.

[Gerlinde Goschi]

A similar question went through my mind during the presentation this afternoon.  K-pop draws international attention.  Students I know from the U.S.  as well as from Europe are huge fans.  Your question is a very good one.  It would be interesting to find out if the films aimed at a male audience have celebrities with more traditional masculine looks.  It would also be interesting to find out what the plot of those films would be?  (Would it be action and adventure filled like we are used to here in the U.S. or completely different?)

[Joy Chao]

I agree with you Gerlinde, yes, in the US it's not so much different; the only difference is maybe the different types of procedures people do to look younger, such as Botox, liposuction, breast augmentations and so on and so forth. So people are conformed to the beauty standards popular in their area. That is not to say it's bad; if by doing these can help one gains more confidence then it's positive; it's just that many people are doing this for other reasons and at the expense of their own safety.  

[Scott Craig]

I agree that it is much better for high school or middle school. It is a great article to show our students just how extreme some people go to "fit in", and contrasts it with the people who are going against that trend. Hopefully it will help some of our students realize that it's a good thing to be true to who they are. Many of my students feel so much pressure to fit in that it leads to a lot of other issues. It would be great for them to see others who are defying the "norm".

[Nichole Morales]

The theme of gender in East Asia really got home for me during Professor Jung-Kim’s lecture. Gender is a social construct that has developed and shifted over time in Korea. The moments of gender development that I found most interesting were about immigrants, war brides, and orphans. And the discussions my students will enjoy when I supplement the curriculum with this information is the “flower boys,” androgyny, and the Korean structure of Hollyu.

[Nichole Morales]

My students who love BTS aren't only huge fangirls, but they're experiementing with androgony. I didn't get it last year. But now I realize that they're far deeper into Hollyu than I realized. I can't wait to chat with them about what I learned about how Korean gender has developed over time.

[Scott Craig]

I too loved the articles and how they showed changes are slowly starting to take place. I'm grateful social media and the internet have allowed these victims to get the oppressive situation out in the open so that school administrators and others are forced to take action. 

[Marcos Rico]

Nanfu is a brave filmmaker, while working on her previous documentary, Hooligan Sparrow, was detained and interrogated for more than 5 hours ( she was able to secretly film part of her interrogation). Knowing that she would run into deep trouble with Chinese authorities if she was caught filming in China again, Nanfu still went back to China to film this documentary.

In One Child Nation, Nanfu takes us along as she learns and discovers many dark secrets (even within her own family) caused by the One Child policy in China. I was not expecting to such a hard hitting documentary, it completely blew my expectations. I had no idea about the forced abortions, and female sterilization. I was shocked to learn about female infanticides and kidnappings by village officers. I had never made the connection about the relationship between Chinese child adoptions by foreigners and the One Child policy. 

It is a wonderful eye opening documentary, the Q&A with Nanfu made it a even greater experience.

[Marcos Garrido]

I loved Dr. Kim’s lecture, as it was full of information that is of interest to my students. It was very interesting to learn about the androgyny phenomena that has taken place since WWII, and how the concept of masculinity has changed. Some of my 7th grade students are so fanatic of BTS, and I figured that I made assumptions about them. As I mentioned in class, most of my male students make negative comments about this k-pop band as this contrasts with the concept of masculinity. On the other hand, it is even more interesting to hear the counter arguments made by my students who like bts, and they essentially say that those who hate bts are jealous of how handsome and popular they are.  In addition, this lecture enriched us with knowledge on chain migration, and some of the consequences of having military bases in Japan and South Korea. More than anything, knowledge of this kind can help us better understand South Korean culture, in order to break away superficial stereotypes.

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