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

[Nira Sun]

I don't know if there's any Korean film, dramas or commercials that are specifically produced for male audiences. The prevalence of plastic surgery reflected equaly on male and female performers. I'd guess, similar as how they attract female audiences, that they will use the performers from the girl bands to attract male audiences. That's probably why we don't normally see male car show models. 

[Joel Jimenez]

What came first, J-Pop or K-Pop?  In terms of K beauty, I've seen sections at beauty stores and salons that sell K Beauty products and it's fascinating.  Even women that I know who use beauty products are using Korean products of which I was not aware that they knew anything about Korean Culture or products.  A great example of capitalism.

[Xiaowei Hunt]

In Professor Jung-Kim’s presentation there are two slides showing military comfort woman Statue. I heard about the term military comfort women, but I did not expect to see any military comfort woman statue until this seminar. According to Professor Jung-Kim, the statues can be seen in front of the Embassy of Japan in Seoul, South Korea. The statute is a young Korean lady, short-haired, in traditional Korean outfit, sitting on a greyed-colored chair, facial expression serious (no smile). Most importantly there is a pigeon on her left shoulder, symbolizing peace; therefore, comfort woman statue is also known as Peace Statute. Another statute of similar theme can be found in Chinatown, San Francisco where The memorial statue is made of bronze and stands at 10-feet tall. It depicts three young women atop a pedestal — one each from China, Korea, and the Philippines — standing in a circle, holding hands. 

 

I am glad statues of military comfort women were finally installed to remind people of what happened to some Asian women in WWII because whoever passes by the statute would ask “What is this?”, “What happened?” and “How did this happen?” etc.

 

[Nelson Ta]

Like the British invasion of the 1960s, there seems to be a worldwide takeover of Korean Pop music and dramas within the past decade. Just thinking back to 5-6 years ago where the biggest song in the world was "Gangnam Style", it is apparent that South Korea has ingrained itself into the world culture. While I enjoyed much Professor Jung-Kim's lecture, I did wish she touched more on the industry of K-Pop as it seems to be a deliberate industry rather than an organic development. While I do understand worldwide sensations like Backstreet Boys in the 90s and One Direction a few years back were built in the same fashion, all accounts of the Korean Pop industry that I have heard about illustrates an indentured servitude rather than the type of celebrity held by western musicians. I wanted just a bit more about the development of the music industry and the impact it has had on the youth culture. 
 

[Nira Sun]

Hi Gerlinde, 

I'd say sending children to study abroad is trending now in Asian countries. Reason one is that, with English as a universal language, U.S. and other English-speaking countries do provide authentic language environment and, presumably, better quality education per Asian parents' perspective. Reason two is, in Asian parents' eyes, with increasing employment pressure in Asian countries, having study abroad experience will help to strengthen their children's competitiveness in terms of job hunting. In Chinese, there is a word to describe this phenomenon which is called "镀金" as in gold-plating. As you can see, it's a common social perspective that with a degree from the other country somehow will help to improve one's socio-economic status. Hence, as long as it's financially affordable, Asian parents would be more than willing to send their children to English speaking countries at very young age. 

There was a Chinese TV drama called "A Love for Separation" featured four typical Chinese families who all went through their own difficulties yet still striving to send their children (all middle schoolers) study abroad. This TV series intended to bring an overlooked issue, on top of the financial stress, to audiences' attention which was the huge psychological impact to both the international students as well as the families that stayed behind. I assigned this TV series to my incoming AP Chinese students as their summer assignment. It definitely provides an interesting angle to understand some of the ongoing issues in contemporary China. It is available on YouTube but, unfortunately, without English subtitle. 

Some of the young international students who came from middle to low class families really strive to achieve high in academic performance, just like your student. Some, especially those we call "rich second generation", are totally different stories. I'm glad that she's got a good teacher, like you, who appreciated her devotion and effort. I wish her best of luck in college. : )

 

[Kathrin Simmons]

BTS has the higher popularity by demonstrating gender fluidity, men taking extra care of their appearance and presenting themselves as cute and happy people. While Blackpink full filling female norms demonstrating pretty much the same.

Both bands are real artists, writing their own songs, creating their performances themselves, also both bands have international values speaking different languages or using the english language in their songs.

I would like to use both bands music and videos to introduce my students to different music genres as well as introducing them to aspects of South Korean culture and especially BTS to show my students gender fluidity and how being not conform with gender roles is acceptable and important.

[Eva Morales]

I find it interesting yet shocking that Japanese men are still threatened by the spread of the message about the lack of justice of the systematic rape towards women that existed and continue to exist in society. I would think that it wouldn’t matter nowadays. Although, I do see how it could make the Japanese men uneasy, because they might think that it would seem that Japanese men even nowadays are violent, or even silent about the issue. In regards to comparing this to issues to the current time, you do see some men marching along side of women for women’s rights in the US.

[Kathrin Simmons]

It would have enjoyed more information on the music industry as well as music videos. Professor Jung-Kim's lecture covered so much material of South Korean history and culture, and gave a great overview.

[Kathrin Simmons]

Professor Jung-Kim's presentation of the "Comfort-women" in World War II  was important reminder to me as well. I wish we would use a different terminolagy, the word "comfort" does not explain the sex slavery that was invicted on Korean and Vietnamese women in World War II. I am thankfull that the memorials are now reminding of that horror that was inflicted on women, their families, and lifes. I need to visit the statues of the two girls in Glendale, San Francisco and of course South Korea and Japan.

[Xiaowei Hunt]

On August 6, 2019, I was fortunate that I was given the opportunity to watch a full-length version of Nanfu Wang’s One Child Nation. Honestly I applaud for Nanfu’s bravery in making such a documentary, and I believe she made sensational news with this documentary worldwide. 

I just wanted to tell how I feel about her One Child Nation from the standpoint of a woman and a mother who experienced the one child policy in Mainland China 1978-2000. 

The data in Nanfu’s documentary could have been more sufficient. Throughout the documentary, it seems the people she interviewed were either from the village she was born, from the nearby rural area, from a writer, one or two baby traffickers or an American couple in Utah. I would like to see she also interview people in urban areas in Mainland China who were also impacted by the one child policy. She used limited data to mirror “One Child Nation” which might have been too generalized or stereotyped. 

 

I experienced and witnessed this one child policy 1978-2000 as a woman and mother in a city setting. I had one child only myself. All of my brother and sisters each had only one child. In Urban areas in China, as far as I am concerned, the mindset of male child being more important than female child was not prevailed. I know that people living in urban areas thought it was feudalist ideology (which was considered backward) to put boys over girls for education or jobs.  

To sum up, it would be more convincing if Nanfu and her crew had also interviewed people in other places (metropolitan city, middle-sized city, small town) of Mainland China for this documentary of such a big theme/topic. 

[Lin Kuang]

I went to the One Child Nation screenings last night with a couple of our teachers. I also lived through the entire one-child policy rea and I just have one son, but I never experienced and heard about the babies-killngs, human traffickers, and adopitions "depiscted in the documentary film.. Based my experiences , I knew the one-child policy was foucsing on people who worked for govenmetn with iron bowels, for villegers which is different, Chinese government stated that they can have two children. Even though, people still have more than two children attemding universities now. One of the twin sisters in the film is  obviously abandoned by her parents for the opportunity of getting a boy. Thatś why she has no interest to renuite with her twin sister even though they finally found her in a adopted American family. I completely understand her situation. The Human traffier who was jailed was depicted as a charity organization to collect abandoned baby girls under the one-child policy, which is s big twist of the truth. He and his followers are criminals who violate the human rights. The purse for this documentary film through a Chinese firlś experience is more obvious and convincing, but as a Chinese American who lived through this era, I didn know anything the film depicted at all. 

[Eva Morales]

Another thing that stuck out from the lecture was the fact that if Koreans were liberal, groups considered them communists. This is similar to what happens in history and in current times. If you see conservative news outlets or even corporate news outlets, one can see how they accuse new generation outspoken people of color with having “radical ideas,” but this is only because it goes against the status quo. Although if you look at history, radical ideas are not radical it is just something that people never really thought about. Abolishing slavery was radical. Desegregation was radical. Women’s rights were radical. This reminded me of the film Walkout, which emphasizes the lack of equal education that existed in LA, by comparing the low-socio-economic status schools to middle-class schools. They fought for equal education, but at one point in the film they compare the concept of equal education leading to communism. Anyways, Walkout is a great film to show in any class that pertains to the concept of what is a radical idea in reality.

[Midori Sanchez]

Yes! The focus of my program is business, and I'm an English teacher. We discuss "authenticity" and the problems that can occur when you don't do your research or portray yourself in a way that is not real such as with "Fyre Festival". It is interesting to think about how plastic surgery affects children psychologically and to compare how we view plastic surgery in the US versus in Asia or South America.

[clay dube]

In some respects, the Korean companies that dominate K-pop are following in the footsteps that Japanese companies pioneered. They still turn them out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIGsBI2Qlf0 . Here's an article about the industry in Japan: https://medium.com/ignition-int/japanese-idols-will-transform-the-world-entertainment-business-b6975f6e588c 

Today, though, Korean acts are far more popular. The Korean Cultural Center has space devoted to Hallyu, the Korean Wave. It is a very serious business. Here's an article about K-Pop from Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2016/11/k-pops-global-success-didnt-happen-by-accident

[clay dube]

Nanfu Wang's focus is very specific, starting with her own rural family. Since 80% of China was rural at the time of program's implementation and since rural families tended to be larger than urban ones, it was useful to illuminate some of this. China, though, is huge and diverse and no place is representative of all of China. And it very different today. 59% of people live in cities. It is especially worth noting:

- the policy was implemented more strictly in 1978-85 than it was later, officials adjusted the policy due to enforcement challenges, the main change being letting rural families have a second child if their first born was female, this change was made in 1984
- the greatest push back was in the countryside, in the city, where many people had secure jobs, health insurance and pensions, it was easier to get compliance
- again, this is not unique to China, urbanization, industrialization and greater education for girls has always resulted in lower birth rates

My criticism of the government is not that it created and implemented a draconian policy, but that as China changed, the policy did not change with it. Instead, continuing to implemente the policy consumed enormous energy and needlessly antagonized people. You can't fault China's leaders for not knowing that the economic changes would accelerate the decline in births, but you can fault them for maintaining the policy once it was clear that the birth rate was dropping as it had everywhere else.

Please compare China's fertility rates with those of Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. Those places have lower fertility rates than China - and didn't require such an intrusive and costly program.

Kay Ann Johnson has written the best book on the topic: https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo22977673.html

Also recommended: A 2015 article by Marty Whyte, Wang Feng and Yong Cai (see below) and the work of Susan Greenhalgh, Just One Child on how the policy was made: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520253391/just-one-child 

The family planning policy was added to China's constitution in 1982. That made critical discussion of, let alone opposition to, the policy difficult. https://china.usc.edu/constitution-peoples-republic-china-1982

"Article 25
The state promotes family planning so that population growth may fit the plans for economic and social development."

 

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