[Emily Efland]

Thank you for sharing this article! It could be really interesting to discuss with students the overlap between Eurocentric beauty standards in the US, and beauty standards in Korea. It could also provide a jumping off point to think about interpersonal oppression (how people interact with women who don't conform to dominant beauty standards) vs. institutional oppression (how institutions treat women who don't follow these standards). For example, what overlap (if any) do students see between women in South Korea who were fired from their jobs for not upholding the standards, and Black children in the US who are forced out of school because of their hair? What about dress codes in US schools vs. Korean schools? Lots of different directions to go in!

[Emily Efland]

Jessica, your comment helped me think a little more deeply about the difference between "soft power" (how a country can use/benefit from their privatized cultural output), and the economic incentives involved in any big music industry that wants to expand to become an international phenomenon. From the reading, it seemed to me that kpop found a lot of success internationally before the government thought about using it as a tool to influence people's perceptions of South Korea. Do you think this is a similar dynamic to American pop culture? It seems to me that Hollywood, American companies' advertising campaigns, and American pop music can all be thought of as advancing a "US American perspective," and obviously the US government benefits from the wide reach of American media, but really the primary stakeholders are the corporations (producers, movie theaters, record labels, etc.) that want to make money from the cultural production and seek to expand it to as wide an audience as possible. Whenever we talk about globalization, there are both incentives -- governments want to expand their power, and corporations want to make money off of it.

I'm curious whether you think pop music (from any country) is less authentic because it's designed for mass appeal. I'm conflicted -- I see why we would expect musicians to write their own music, but it seems like if the music does appeal to a lot of people, it's obviously speaking to something more universal in how humans connect to music.

[Emily Efland]

I really enjoyed reading the stories about relationships in this piece -- each mini case study was a fascinating look into gender dynamics and how they are shaped by economics, social mores, and immigration. Excerpts from this book could be used to explore how economic and social structures influence and gender power. These stories, read alongside excerpts from other examinations of gender (maybe pulling from Kristen Ghodsee's "Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism") could provide evidence for a debate over the question: "What kind of economic structures and social norms allow people to live most freely?"

Some different ways I could see using these stories in a classroom:

- In groups, students could read excerpts from several of the relationship stories told by Qian Ning. They could sort the stories based on different patterns they see -- thinking about how relationships are shaped by power (financial, social, and power from immigration status).

- Students could debate this statement in a Structured Academic Controversy: "Women live better lives under socialism." Evidence from Qian Ning's stories, Ghodsee's book, and American feminist movements in the late 80s could all be included, to ensure that students grapple with how not only financial structures but also societal values influence women's lives. 

[Emily Efland]

Hi everyone! I teach World History and Ethnic Studies at Wallenberg High School in San Francisco. I'm really looking forward to learning with you all, and deepening my own understanding of cross-border influence and globalization in their historic and modern contexts. 

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